Jeff Epler's blog2015-03-04T19:45:40ZPhotos, electronics, cnc, and moreJeff Eplerjepler@unpythonic.netHide non-linux titles in humble bundle sales2015-03-04T19:45:40Z2015-03-04T19:45:40Zhttp://emergent.unpythonic.net/01425498340
Like many people over the age of 30, I remember when the Humble
Bundle consistently offered Linux versions of almost everything in their
bundles.
<p>Those days are long gone, and now it's necessary to scrub over the &quot;DRM FREE!&quot;
button of every title to find out whether it's on Linux.
<p>But with <a href="http://media.unpythonic.net/emergent-files/01425498340/bumdle.user.js">this userscript</a> (tested only on firefox
with greasemonkey), titles that are not available on Linux are automatically
greyed out and need trouble you no more.
<p>If you're like me, and the number of times you boot a Windows machine to play
video games is way under twice a year, remember to vote with your wallet:
before checking out, open &quot;choose where your money goes&quot; and &quot;developers&quot;, then
slide the slider for all non-linux titles right down to zero.
Hazelnut Coffee and Hazelnut-Sunflower-Chocolate Butter2015-02-28T21:32:49Z2015-02-28T21:32:49Zhttp://emergent.unpythonic.net/01425159169
This weekend I made good on my threats to try my hand at a homemade hazelnut
butter and hazelnut coffee. I've only had one cup of coffee and a few
spoonfuls of the butter, but I like how both turned out.
<p>Toast 1½ cups hazelnuts in a cast iron skillet. Roll in a pillowcase or
dishtowel to remove most of the dark skin (if the skin is stubborn, you didn't
roast enough—return to the skillet). Place in food processor.
<p>Process until hazelnut pieces are coffee-ground sized but still powdery.
Remove ½ cup or so for hazelnut coffee; store in airtight container in
refrigerator.
<p>Add 1½ cups toasted sunflower seeds, 1 cup dark chocolate chips and ½ tsp salt
to food processor. Process until it forms into a ball. Store in airtight
container. I expect this to keep as long as any other preservative-free nut
butter. Originally I stored my nut butter in the fridge, but the next morning
it was too stiff to spread well. It's clearly much better to store it at room
temperature, as long as it's used up quickly.
<p>This butter is not as smooth, oily, or sweet as the commercial product you may
be thinking of; it's more like <a href="http://justins.com/product/chocolate-hazelnut-butter/">Justin's Chocolate Hazelnut Butter</a>.
<p><h3>Hazelnut coffee</h3>
Combine 1 part hazelnut powder with 5 parts coffee grounds and then follow
normal coffee-making process (I use an aeropress and then add a liberal splash
of heavy cream). I assume that it will work to store this combined with ground
coffee for at least a few days depending how picky you are about the freshness
of your coffee beans.
<p>Both recipes will benefit from some tweaking to your own personal preference,
but as a proof of concept both of these ideas are obvious winners.
Cheating at incremental games using angularjs2015-02-19T19:31:59Z2015-02-19T19:31:59Zhttp://emergent.unpythonic.net/01424374319
I don't know a thing about javascript frameworks, but I like to cheat at
incremental games. So it's frustrating when a game is made with some framework
that seems to leave everything inaccessible. (I think this is more about
the framework trying to be hygenic than anti-cheating)
<p>So I was happy to learn enough about angularjs to cheat at my favorite
incremental game of the moment, <a href="https://swarmsim.github.io/">Swarm Simulator</a>.
<p><pre >
var sc = angular.element(document.querySelector('.ng-scope')).scope()
sc.env.isDebugEnabled = 1
sc.game._units.byName.nexus.prodByName.energy.val = new Decimal(1000)
sc.game.unit('mutagen')._addCount(new Decimal(1e100))
</pre>
Maria Island2015-01-13T15:43:10Z2015-01-13T15:43:10Zhttp://emergent.unpythonic.net/01421163790
<div style="float:right;clear:right"><!-- img_0024.jpg--><div class=albumouter style=width:306px id=><div class=albumimage style="width:306px;margin-left:0px;"><a href="http://media.unpythonic.net/emergent-files/australia/01364176339/img_0024-medium.jpg" class="thickbox" rel="album" title="Sandstone carved by the sea and colored with iron."><img src="http://media.unpythonic.net/emergent-files/australia/01364176339/img_0024-small.jpg" width=300 height=200></a><div ><div style="float: right" ><a href="http://media.unpythonic.net/emergent-files/australia/01364176339/img_0024-medium.jpg">(M)</a><a href="http://media.unpythonic.net/emergent-files/australia/01364176339/img_0024.jpg">(L)</a></div><a href="http://media.unpythonic.net/emergent-files/australia/01364176339/img_0024.jpg">Sandstone carved by the sea and colored with iron.</a></div></div></div>
</div>We spent one of our last days at Maria Island, just off the east coast of Tasmania. It was a beautiful, uninhabited island, with tons of amazing scenery. I've narrowed down our pictures to a few of the best.One year in a Prius2015-01-02T13:55:16Z2015-01-02T13:55:16Zhttp://emergent.unpythonic.net/01420206916
We got our 2013 Prius just about a year ago, and I ran TRIP A without resetting
it for that whole first year. Here are the final numbers:
<p><img src="http://media.unpythonic.net/emergent-files/01420206916/mpg.jpg">
<p>For everyone not still suffering under the tyrrany of imperial measures,
44.4mpg is around 5.3l/100km and the distance driven is about 12000km.
<p>That means ...
<ul >
<li >260 hours total driving time</li>
<li >43 minutes driving time per day</li>
<li >21 average miles a day (33km)</li>
<li >170 gallons of fuel (640l)</li>
<li >2/3 gallon per hour of driving (2.4l/hour)</li></ul>
<p>Getting at 44.4mpg instead of the EPA combined fuel economy of 50mpg
means using 20 extra gallons of fuel over the course of the year, 13%
more than predicted.
<p>Overall we're happy with the Prius. It's much roomier than the car it
replaced and it has better fuel economy. However, I'm a bit sad we
didn't get closer to the EPA fuel economy.
<p>The main thing lowering the fuel economy is short winter drives. My
drive to and from work is just 2.5 miles per direction, and I often
drive a similar distance to and from lunch. In winter, that's too
little distance for the car to warm up to the point that it enters the
fuel-saving EV mode while stopped at lights. (this kind of driving is
even classified as &quot;severe operating conditions&quot; by Toyota: &quot;Repeated
trips of less than 5 miles in temperatures below 32 degrees Fahrenheit&quot;)
<p>Our summertime fuel economy (also the time of year when we make long
driving trips on the highway) is closer to 48mpg.
First Half of Tasmania2014-12-17T17:37:16Z2014-12-17T17:37:16Zhttp://emergent.unpythonic.net/01418837836
<div style="float:right;clear:right"><!-- img_9372-crop.jpg--><div class=albumouter style=width:306px id=><div class=albumimage style="width:306px;margin-left:0px;"><a href="http://media.unpythonic.net/emergent-files/australia/01363571481/img_9372-crop-medium.jpg" class="thickbox" rel="album" title="Water droplets in the Tasmanian temperate rain forest"><img src="http://media.unpythonic.net/emergent-files/australia/01363571481/img_9372-crop-small.jpg" width=300 height=199></a><div ><div style="float: right" ><a href="http://media.unpythonic.net/emergent-files/australia/01363571481/img_9372-crop-medium.jpg">(M)</a><a href="http://media.unpythonic.net/emergent-files/australia/01363571481/img_9372-crop.jpg">(L)</a></div><a href="http://media.unpythonic.net/emergent-files/australia/01363571481/img_9372-crop.jpg">Water droplets in the Tasmanian temperate rain forest</a></div></div></div>
</div>Here are more shots from Tasmania, this time from Jeff's camera in much more detail! The first set is from Cradle Mountain on our rainy, cool full day there, where Jeff found some cool rain drops and lichen. Then we visited the Tamar Valley Wetlands near Launceston and enjoyed a lovely walk. Finally, there are a few shots of neat insects from <a href="http://www.windsongbnb.com.au">Windsong B&amp;B</a> where we stayed on the east coast of Tasmania.Uptime on digitalocean2014-12-09T23:14:36Z2014-12-09T23:14:36Zhttp://emergent.unpythonic.net/01418166876
I decided it was time to reboot my <a href="https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=2f8ff7d3234b">digitalocean machine</a> after installing a new
kernel. Its uptime was:
<pre > 17:14:28 up 368 days, 19:55, 3 users, load average: 0.29, 0.10, 0.07</pre>
Since that's a year I suppose that in that time it's cost me about $60, minus
some for the referrals I've gotten for posting about them on my blog.
<p>.. I actually had to reboot it twice because I didn't know you had to change
the kernel version via the control panel(!) but no harm done.
<p>Anyway, in that time I never noticed any blips in functionality or
connectivity, though on a couple of occasions they credited me a few cents for
a service interruption.
<p>All in all, it's quite a solid service!
Great Ocean Road2014-11-12T00:42:56Z2014-11-12T00:42:56Zhttp://emergent.unpythonic.net/01415752976
<div style="float:right;clear:right"><!-- img_9132.jpg--><div class=albumouter style=width:306px id=><div class=albumimage style="width:306px;margin-left:0px;"><a href="http://media.unpythonic.net/emergent-files/australia/01361933080/img_9132-medium.jpg" class="thickbox" rel="album" title="The gorgeous Grotto, along the Great Ocean Road."><img src="http://media.unpythonic.net/emergent-files/australia/01361933080/img_9132-small.jpg" width=300 height=200></a><div ><div style="float: right" ><a href="http://media.unpythonic.net/emergent-files/australia/01361933080/img_9132-medium.jpg">(M)</a><a href="http://media.unpythonic.net/emergent-files/australia/01361933080/img_9132.jpg">(L)</a></div><a href="http://media.unpythonic.net/emergent-files/australia/01361933080/img_9132.jpg">The gorgeous Grotto, along the Great Ocean Road.</a></div></div></div>
</div>The Great Ocean Road travels along the coast of Victoria to the west of Melbourne. It's an area of amazing beauty and contrasts, well loved by tourists. We enjoyed the dramatic ocean views as well as the wildlife. Jeff got some amazing photos along the way.